Document · 2000
Platov & Sokolov, "Study of unidentified flying objects in the USSR", Vestnik of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000
The history of the Soviet state programme on anomalous phenomena (Setka, 1978–1990), written by its two coordinators: physicist Yuli Platov of the Academy of Sciences and Col. Boris Sokolov of the Ministry of Defence. It was published in Vestnik Rossiyskoy Akademii Nauk, vol. 70, no. 6 (2000), pp. 507–515.
It explains that most reports were caused by rocket and satellite launches, including Poseidon tests seen from the Canary Islands, and by large research balloons. It also describes the few cases investigated urgently, including the missile-division case usually identified with Usovo/Byelokorovichi 1982. The paper's own date and location for that case, 1983 and Khmelnytskyi, differ from the 1982 witness statements; the reason for this is not known. Our copy is a print of the full text published online by VIVOS VOCO.
Sources: Vestnik RAN 70(6), 2000
Facts and claims
- documented The authors describe their first urgent investigation: on 5 October 1983 (later in the same passage, 5 October 1982), from 18:00 to 22:00, up to 50 servicemen and family members of a Strategic Rocket Forces division saw bright, airship-like luminous objects. They place the division near Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine. During the sighting a warning panel on the division command post's control console lit, signalling a fault in the missile launch system, and went out by itself after some tens of seconds. The division commander reported the fault to the General Staff, linking it to the lights. Source: doc-platov-sokolov-vran-2000.pdf
- documented The commission found that at that time the 26th Air Army was dropping illumination flares from about 10 km over a bombing range in the Belarusian Polesye, about 400 km to the north. Because the range lay below the observers' horizon, the authors infer rare super-refraction. They conclude the fault "никакого отношения к наблюдавшимся явлениям не имела, кроме того, что совершенно случайно совпала с ними по времени". Source: doc-platov-sokolov-vran-2000.pdf
Connected files
People
- Yuli Platov (authored by)
- Boris Sokolov (authored by)
Programs
Incidents
Videos
- Byelokorovichi 1982: George Knapp's 1994 field report with Lt. Col. Vladimir Platunov (discussed in)
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